May 24, 2012

Amy Goodman: Memorial Day: Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars

from truthdig:



Memorial Day: Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars

Posted on May 23, 2012
By Amy Goodman


Gen. John Allen, commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, spoke Wednesday at the Pentagon, four stars on each shoulder, his chest bedecked with medals. Allen said the NATO summit in Chicago, which left him feeling “heartened,” “was a powerful signal of international support for the Afghan-led process of reconciliation.” Unlike Allen, many decorated U.S. military veterans left the streets of Chicago after the NATO summit without their medals. They marched on the paramilitarized convention center where the generals and heads of state had gathered and threw their medals at the high fence surrounding the summit. They were joined by women from Afghans for Peace, and an American mother whose son killed himself after his second deployment to Iraq.

Leading thousands of protesters in a peaceful march against NATO’s wars, each veteran climbed to the makeshift stage outside the fenced summit, made a brief statement and threw his or her medals at the gate.

As taps was played, veterans folded an American flag that had flown over NATO military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya and handed it to Mary Kirkland. Her son, Derrick, joined the Army in January 2007, since he was not earning enough to support his wife and child as a cook at an IHOP restaurant. During his second deployment, Mary told me, “he ended up putting a shotgun in his mouth over there in Iraq, and one of his buddies stopped him.” He was transferred to Germany then back to his home base of Fort Lewis, Wash.

“He came back on a Monday after two failed suicide attempts in a three-week period. They kept him overnight at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis. He met with a psychiatrist the next day who deemed him to be low to moderate risk for suicide.” Five days later, on Friday, March 19, 2010, he hanged himself. Said his mother, “Derrick was not killed in action; he was killed because of failed mental health care at Fort Lewis.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/memorial_day_honor_the_dead_heal_the_wounded_stop_the_wars_20120523/?ln

May 24, 2012

Robert Scheer: Do the Bain Hustle

from truthdig:



Do the Bain Hustle

Posted on May 23, 2012
By Robert Scheer


Obviously Barack Obama was right in criticizing Mitt Romney’s stewardship of Bain Capital. How else to evaluate the business experience that Romney has made a central tenet of his campaign?

As Obama put it all too accurately: “My opponent, Governor Romney—his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. He’s not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He’s saying: ‘I’m a business guy. I know how to fix it.’ ”

And the fixing of the beleaguered companies acquired under Romney’s leadership at Bain Capital involved the very practices that have led to the loss of good American jobs to ensure the outrageous rewards that made Romney so wealthy.

Although Romney presents his activities as a form of venture capitalist investment, giving life to new enterprises, his practice has been quite the opposite. Ninety percent of Bain Capital’s deals by the end of his tenure involved dismembering once-thriving enterprises and selling off the parts, along with the jobs connected to them. “He made his money mainly through leveraged buyouts,” The New York Times reported five years ago in a detailed survey of Bain Capital’s practices under Romney, “mortgaging companies to take them over in the hope of reselling them at big profits in just a few years.” ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/do_the_bain_hustle_20120524/

May 24, 2012

Chris Hedges in Conversation with Community Church

A lively question and answer hour with Chris Hedges and attendees of the Action for Justice Sunday at The Community Church of New York, May 13, 2012 where Chris spoke about reviving the left.

May 24, 2012

HP to cut 27,000 jobs

SAN FRANCISCO—Hewlett-Packard plans to jettison 27,000 workers as the growing popularity of smartphones, the iPad and other mobile devices makes it tougher for the company to sell personal computers.

The cuts announced Wednesday represent the HP’s largest payroll purge in its 73-year history.

The reductions will affect about eight per cent of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014.

HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs by offering early retirement packages. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1183112--hewlett-packard-to-cut-27-000-workers?bn=1

May 23, 2012

'I find your lack of faith disturbing'...'Tell all your friends about me'....Next station, Dundas.

Even pop culture icons love the Toronto subway

May 23, 2012

How Can States Give Tax Money to Private, Religious Schools? Loopholes, Of Course

How Can States Give Tax Money to Private, Religious Schools? Loopholes, Of Course


There was a story in The New York Times today about state programs that offer tax credits to people who donate to private (mostly religious) primary and secondary schools. It's a long story ,and you may have skipped over it, but I'd like to recommend it to you, because so many of the most infuriating things about America happen as a result of these laws.

First of all, the laws are an end run around legal restrictions on the funding of religious schools. The people who support the laws claim that they're constitutional because no tax money goes to religious schools, but if you get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donating to a religious school, as the story says you do in Georgia, that's indirect funding of religious schools by means of diverted tax money -- but, of course, wingnut-dominated courts don't see it that way, so the state laws are routinely upheld.

According to the story, the laws exist ostensibly to set up scholarships that help needy kids escape bad public schools, but, in fact, what generally happens is that families raise the money from friends and relatives, then send their own kids to the schools -- needy kids never get scholarships. Or parents who send their kids to these private schools already pretend to enroll their kids in public school, then get this money to divert the already diverted kids. Or the money is raised to get some hotshot football player into a particular private school. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/933977/how_can_states_give_tax_money_to_private%2C_religious_schools_loopholes%2C_of_course/

May 23, 2012

Jim Hightower: One Thing Americans Can Count On: Banker Greed Is Bottomless

from AlterNet:



One Thing Americans Can Count On: Banker Greed Is Bottomless


We're sick and tired of being bullied and stomped on by the Powers That Be in Washington, and by gollies, we're not going to take it anymore!

Hooray! It's about time that workers, consumers, small farmers and other "small fry" joined together in a populist rebellion to make big-shot Congress critters of both parties listen to us. But -- uh-oh -- wait a minute. These mad-as-hellers aren't wielding pitchforks and torches, but big bags of cash. Holy Thom Payne -- they're bankers!

Very few Americans on this side of the ATM machine think that the biggest problem in Washington is that the moneychangers don't have enough clout. But, incredibly, here they come with a super PAC intended to force lawmakers to bow even deeper to their needs.

"Congress isn't afraid of bankers," declared one of the bank honchos who organized the Friends of Traditional Banking super PAC. "They don't think we'll do anything to kick them out of office," he said, but that's exactly the plan. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/933793/one_thing_americans_can_count_on%3A_banker_greed_is_bottomless/

May 23, 2012

Quebec protesters explain why they march

from the Montreal Gazette:




Luc Séguin, 54, labour relations worker, father of a high school student

“Since 1995, the government cut taxes to industries and the rich, so the proportion they pay is minimal compared to what a middle class family earning $100,000 pays — it’s us that’s taking the hit, and will continue forever to pay. Bill 78 is an anti-democratic law designed to muzzle the population. ... To put an end to the strike, the Liberals have to sit down and negotiate in good faith, and not like they did the last time, making an agreement, then announcing in the newspapers they’ve succeeded in screwing the students.”

.....(snip).....

Gabrielle Girard, 20, student in education at Université du Québec à Montréal, on strike since Feb. 23.

“We’re here to fight the tuition hike, but also the manner in which the Charest government has handled this. It’s three months we’ve protested in the streets, and the government won’t talk to us. ... I say either Charest finally talks to students, or he has to call an election to end all of this. Elections or negotiations. Otherwise, there’s no way out.”

.....(snip).....

Samuel René de Cotret, 27, Masters student in physics at Université de Sherbrooke

“We’re here to protest the tuition hikes and Bill 78, a totalitarian law that serves nothing but to inflame the tensions. And also to protest against several of the Charest government’s decisions that were taken unilaterally that don’t favour Quebec, but do favour private interests. .... The corruption of the Charest government concerns me, and I want elections to be called so we can clean house.”

.....(snip).....

Yoann Deguire, 17, clerk at Canadian Tire

“I’m here because I want to go to school, I’m against the tuition hikes, and I’m against Bill 78, that suppresses the right to freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate. A rise in tuition hikes doesn’t just affect students, it affects all of society. .... When you close the doors to a school, you open the doors to a prison.”


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Quebec+protesters+explain+they+march/6662035/story.html#ixzz1viTD0VKq

May 23, 2012

Facebook IPO: Another day, another lawsuit

After two straight days of getting hammered on the stock market, shares of Facebook are on the rise today, but that doesn’t mean the social media giant can breathe easy as the fallout continues from its controversial IPO.

Wednesday, a group of investors launched a class-action suit against Facebook and several of the underwriters who led the IPO. The suit, filed in U.S. federal court in Manhattan, claims investors have lost more than $2.5 billion since the IPO last week.

As of 1 p.m., Facebook shares were trading on the NASDAQ exchange at $31.85, a rise of 85 cents on the day. They’d earlier risen as high as $32.50.

“The true facts at the time of the IPO were that Facebook was then experiencing a severe and pronounced reduction in revenue growth,” the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1182879--facebook-ipo-another-day-another-lawsuit?bn=1

May 23, 2012

Blame it on the Rain (instead of the austerity)

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. retail sales fell the most in more than two years in April as record rainfall reduced demand for clothing and fuel sales plunged.

Sales including auto fuel declined 2.3 percent from March, when warm weather helped lift sales by an upwardly revised 2 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast of 24 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a 0.8 percent decline. Sales excluding fuel dropped 1 percent, the most for almost a year.

Consumer spending is being curtailed as inflation outpaces wages and unemployment remains close to a 16-year high. Marks & Spencer Group Plc (MKS), the largest U.K. clothing retailer, cut its sales forecast yesterday and said the economic environment is “challenging.” Stripping out the impact of fuel and wet weather, retail sales were still down on the month, the statistics office said.

“The underlying picture is sluggish,” said Ross Walker, chief U.K. economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group in London. “Employment remains fragile and wage growth weak.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-23/u-k-retail-sales-fall-most-in-two-years-on-rain-effects.html